Virgo HEALTH and Open Road to support Janssen’s Risperdal Consta in the UK
June 15th 2010
Virgo HEALTH has been appointed by Janssen-Cilag to deliver an integrated PR and PA programme in conjunction with PA partner Open Road to support Risperdal Consta in the UK.
Since the recent appointment of Mark Lloyd Davies as Head of Government Affairs and Communications at Janssen-Cilag, there has been a renewed energy and focus on communications activities. This has led to an internal and external review of the function resulting in a number of pitches of which the Risperdal Consta was one.
“We recognise the significant role that communications and government affairs can play in terms of a company’s reputation and profile. We are delighted to be working with Virgo given their wealth of experience in mental health, and with Open Road, given their growing reputation in the healthcare environment. We feel that Virgo and Open Road’s values and approach are very much aligned with the way we want to work and we are looking forward to a successful partnership going forward,” said Mark Lloyd Davies, Head of Government Affairs and Communications at Janssen-Cilag.
Virgo HEALTH director, Meredith Guest, who will lead the account team said, “There are unique challenges associated with communications around mental health with expectations around treatment and staying well constantly evolving. We are incredibly excited about working with the team at Janssen-Cilag as they continue to deliver innovative treatments to advance the care of people with severe mental illness.”
Open Road Chief Executive, Graham McMillan, said, “The recent general election, and the continuing challenges to the NHS budget, could spark significant changes in mental health policy over the course of the new Parliament. We look forward to helping the team at Janssen-Cilag to navigate this changing environment and to working with them and our partners at Virgo HEALTH to engage with stakeholders from across the spectrum on the issues connected with severe mental illness.”
For more than 50 years, Janssen-Cilag has pioneered new treatments for mental illness that have revolutionised schizophrenia management and transformed the lives of thousands of patients.
Virgo Health And Open Road win Janssen-Cilag
June 15th 2010
The agencies have been given responsibility for delivering an integrated PR and public affairs programme to support the drug in the UK.
The appointments follow an internal and external review of the pharma firm’s comms activities, after the
recent appointment of Mark Lloyd Davies as head of government affairs and communications at the firm.
‘We recognise the significant role that communications and government affairs can play in terms of a firm’s reputation and profile,’ said Davies. ‘We are delighted to be working with Virgo, given its wealth of experience in mental health, and with Open Road, given its growing reputation in the healthcare environment.’
The Virgo team will be headed by director Meredith Guest, who said of the appointment: ‘There are unique challenges associated with comms around mental health, with expectations about treatment and staying well constantly evolving.’
Open Road chief executive Graham McMillan added: ‘The recent general election and the continuing challenges to the NHS budget could spark significant changes in mental health policy over the course of the new Parliament.
‘We will be helping the team at Janssen-Cilag to navigate this changing environment and working with them and our partners at Virgo Health to engage with stakeholders from across the spectrum on the issues connected with severe mental illness.’
Story appears on PR Week
Public Affairs News - new recruits
June 14th 2010
Three-and-a-half-year-old public affairs consultancy Open Road has unveiled a brace of recruits from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Weber Shandwick (WS).
John Williams has joined the London-based agency as its new head of research, moving from the OFT’s external relations team. He has previously worked in Parliament for Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes and as a communications assistant for the Liberal Democrats.
In his new role he replaces Carys Afoko, who has been promoted to consultant.
Separately, Emma Haselhurst recently moved to Open Road as a consultant from WS, where she was an account manager specialising in healthcare and education business. She will aim to grow Open Road’s growing healthcare practice, as well as working for existing agency clients, Orange and GE.
Haselhurst’s father, Sir Alan, is the long-serving Conservative MP for Saffron Waldon (Essex).
Finally, Anna Appleton will be joining Open Road as a researcher on 21 June. A politics and sociology graduate from York University, she has formerly worked at YouGov and ComRes.
Open Road has 14 members of staff and clients including Prudential, HSBC and BSkyB.
Source: Public Affairs News
ELECTION 2010: AGENCY BOSSES’ VERDICT
May 5th 2010
As polling-day nears, Public Affairs News asked 32 agency bosses five questions:
1) Who will be PM at the State Opening of Parliament?
2) Labour politician to watch?
3) Conservative politician to watch?
4) Lib Dem politician to watch?
5) Select committee to watch?
We also asked them: ‘What would a hung Parliament mean for the PA professionals?’
Graham McMillan - Chief executive, Open Road
1) Clegg (just kidding). David Cameron as headof a minority government.
2) Chuka Umunna (Streatham). Great guy, highly talented and going places.
3) Shaun Bailey (Hammersmith). Highly talented and close to the leadership. Assuming he wins the seat, he will be a rising star.
4) Jo Swinson (East Dunbartonshire) is an extremely effective campaigner and will come into her own in her second Parliament, building on her experience as an MP in the last.
5) The Treasury select committee – as the economy, reducing the deficit and reforming the banks and financial regulation take centre stage.
The complete article is available on-line - Public Affairs News
The challenge of opposition
March 1st 2010
Full article appears in PR Week
If the Tories win the election, David Cameron’s real challenge will be the barriers to change. Promising change is a risky tactic. Just look at Barack Obama - or, indeed, Gordon Brown.
But, unfortunately, leaders of the opposition have no choice: achieving change is why you are there, so that is what you talk about.
Winning an election is the easy part.
Really changing the country is much harder. And, in an age that demands instant gratification, it also suffers from the severe disadvantage of taking absolutely ages.
Forget about mending broken Britain, creating a culture of entrepreneurship, or any of the big changes David Cameron has promised.
There are some more immediate roadblocks in his way. First, the media. How can this be when most newspapers are backing the Tories? But that omits the pervasive influence of the BBC. This is not a crude political point.
The BBC appears to see its job as being to treat all politicians as - to quote Jeremy Paxman - ‘lying bastards’. But Tory ‘bastards’ are held to be the worst sort by a corporation whose inherent anti-free market inclinations are a reflection of its constitution and ethos.
Then there are the unions. Apparently they have a war chest of £25m to fund public sector strikes. We must pass over the irony of action that will hurt the poor, sick and unemployed more than it will inconvenience suburban Tory voters.
In any case, although there will be some immediate pain, Cameron will relish the opportunity to test himself against the likes of RMT general secretary Bob Crow or PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka.
Easy pickings.
Next,there is the senior civil service.
This is a lot trickier.
The Tories have dark suspicions that the mandarins have been politicised.
That might be true in a few instances, but it is certainly not generally the case.
Civil servants are not anti-Conservative: they retain their lordly contempt for all politicians. What has happened - and I speak from personal experience of a previous regime change in 1997 - is that after a longish period of one-party rule, departments become habituated to the outlook and approach of their ministers.
It takes time to turn that around - and time is not a commodity that the new Conservative Government will have.
This will be worse for the Tories than it was for Labour.
The civil service and New Labour share a conviction that big government is better: the man in Whitehall really does know best.
This is a natural part of the professional self-esteem that motivates any bureaucracy.
The civil service will do its best for Cameron, but it will be a struggle.
Then there is the broader public sector.
This is not just a question of a few permanent secretaries. There was a good reason why Tony Blair spoke of ‘the scars on my back’ when talking about achieving public sector reform. All prime ministers have that hopeless feeling of pulling the levers in 10 Downing Street - and nothing happens. It’s why they all end up playing at international statesman instead: so much easier to solve others’ problems.
Finally, there is the enemy within: Cameron’s own party.
Gone are the days when the party had a sound ballast of chaps who had made a bit of money, served as an MP out of duty and trooped obediently through the lobbies. The Tories used to be the stupid party: now it seems to be full of ‘action men and women’ who are also, by and large, a lot less centrist than their leader.
Some will be bribed with office, some will be bullied by the whips, but others will continue to have ideas.
And, as any PM will confirm, backbenchers with ideas have a nasty habit of turning into rivals if things get rocky.
Relations between the leader, his key advisers and the shadow cabinet are already said to be difficult without the backbenchers.
Good luck, Dave.
VIEWS IN BRIEF
- Who are your five fantasy dinner guests from the political world?
Cato the Younger - heroic tales of resisting tyranny; Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick - advice on political manipulation; Charles James Fox, raconteur and sybarite; Calvin Coolidge, 30th US president - laconic wit; Percy Bysshe Shelley - not really a politician, but a revolutionary wild card and good talker.
- Predict one thing that will happen in the week running up to the election.
There will be a Tory wobble but we will all have died of boredom by then.
- A hung parliament: good or bad news for public affairs?
Political destabilisation is good for agency incomes, but bad for research teams.
Martin LeJeune is a director at Open Road